Where to start?

L3go

Ok so I took a small deliver of my old Lego from my childhood today.

Where do I start to work out what I have? Any advice from anyone?

I know for sure there is a kings castle but, once I separate those pieces who do I work out what I have left?




Any advice guys sorry if this is a noob question.

oldtodd33

I would start by washing them and sorting by color and then put the minifigures back together so I could remember which sets I had. You are lucky though, I wish I had my childhood sets back.

L3go

I am so excited to get this. My parents have been saving this in the loft. The Knights castel was bough around 1983/4.

Your right about one thing, a wish is needed. This stuff is grubby.

These are a few of my favourite minifigures.

binaryeye

I second the advice of sorting by color. I keep my parts sorted by type, but when you're trying to identify sets, color is more useful. And with sets from this era, it's pretty simple. My childhood collection was from roughly the same era but a bit earlier (ended at the beginning of Pirates and not into M-Tron), and I sorted everything into black, blue, gray, red, white, yellow, and other (essentially brown, green, and transparent). Then I sorted minifigures, minifigure accessories, and Technic separately.

The minifigures are a good place to start in determining sets, though the same ones were used across more sets back then so it's not as useful a strategy as with today's sets.

BrickLink is useful in verifying inventories, and this site is useful if you've lost any instructions.

monkey_roo

Cleaning and sorting is good, but if there are sets you can remember then getting hold of instructions and trying to rebuild the sets is the way to go, really relive your childhood.

ColoradoBricks

After sorting, isolates unique pieces, like the Baseplate 16 x 16 with Island on Blue Water Pattern and check what set it was used in http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=3867p01&in=S

Then those 24 x 43 Technic Tires used in http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=3740&in=S

L3go

Thanks guys. When I first saw how much I have to go though I was thinking it would be a bit of a task but actually looking forward to it.

This is a job for Sunday me thinks.

I am really looking forward to relieving my childhood as you said @monkey_roo‌ gonna be fun. Feel kind of lucky I have all this wonderful Lego.

plasmodium

Nice. Looks like you've got a great Sunday afternoon ahead of you! When you're done sorting, post pictures of the most distinctive pieces here or in the official "help identifying pieces thread" and we will try to help figure out exactly what sets you've got there.

L3go

So last Sunday came and went an I was unable to sort any of the Lego out - Today on the other hand I have sorted three boxes in to colour - There is a mixture of Lego and Lego Technics but so far so good -



I am going to post some pics of some part's in the official thread as I need a little help but what is the easyist way to do this myself? Some have numbers and some don't - Ones with number I looked up in Bricklink but the search did not return the correct part?

any tips would be welcome.

MrShinyAndNew

I'd be inclined to browse through the catalogue by year, starting with sets made the last year you recall getting the lego. Then, whenever you see a set you remember owning, build it. What's left over is the sets you can't remember; that's when I'd start trying to identify mystery parts.

Niles87

^ I did the same thing, did it year by year. I haven't rebuilt anything since I left home in '05, but I do have ALL my manuals (some in worse shape than others, lol). I have begun sorting parts out by sets, and bagging accordingly. In hindsight, I'm thinking that sorting by color first would have been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay faster. Oh well.

piratemania7

When I sorted out my bulk collection I sorted by color. Then I realized I really only solved half the problem. It is much much easier if you sort by element instead and mix multiple colors together.

Dedgecko

piratemania7 said:

When I sorted out my bulk collection I sorted by color. Then I realized I really only solved half the problem. It is much much easier if you sort by element instead and mix multiple colors together.

I too made the mistake of sorting by color first. the problem is that it makes it much harder to find smaller parts under all of the big stuff.

Norlego

Such a tiny amount of Lego so not sure why bother to sort into colours. It is allready done, but I would sort bricks into piles of Castle, Technics, Pirates etc. Find the unique parts like the 16x16 island build those first. There are not that many grey castle from the 80s, so check what base plates you have as that will help.

L3go

So what you see in that pic is just 1/3 of the bags.

I finally finished sorting these out and found the castle

brickset.com/sets/6080-1/King-s-Castle


But at as @piratemania7 and @Dedgecko mentioned I found looking for smaller parts was problematic so seeing as I am in no rush, I have started to break down colour (seeing as they are all separated now) in to elements so but at this stage just the colours that are used in the castle mentioned above. That was I can pull out what I need at the same time.